How to end child poverty in Plymouth

In Plymouth the Labour administration has launched a consultation on ending child poverty. Members of Plymouth Socialist Party branch have been frustrated to see that the only solutions offered within the introductory consultation booklet are:

a) Giving better benefits advice

b) Getting people on water meters

Our concern is that this is a window dressing PR exercise as opposed to a meaningful attempt to take real action.

We held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss real solutions to ending poverty in Plymouth and we now intend to submit this to the consultation.

We began by seeking to end the idea that you can end child poverty without thinking about what is going on in the lives of parents, eg job losses and pay cuts.

We have then bullet-pointed real suggestions, including restoring EMA, offering free breakfast clubs to pupils, stopping the 'bedroom tax', ensuring that the council pays a living wage to its staff, and not pushing young people into poverty through turning jobs into apprenticeships which then offer even less than the minimum wage!

We intend to campaign on this issue in Plymouth to push for less posturing and more action.

Tom Taylor

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